EAU Press Releases

Often patients undergo procedures without real informed consent being achieved due to technical language, jargon and time pressure, with up to half of patients finding it difficult to understand what their doctor tells them [1, 2]. Now a group of Australian doctors has prepared patients for surgery using iPads, and found that patients’ understanding was much better than after a face-to-face consultation.

Choosing ongoing monitoring instead of immediate curative treatment (surgery or radiotherapy) leads to a better overall quality of life for men with low-risk prostate cancer. In fact, the Quality of life (QoL) is about the same as for men who do not have cancer.  These are the findings of a new long-term study comparing Active Surveillance, immediate curative treatment, and a reference group of men without cancer, presented at the Annual Congress of the European Association of Urology in Munich.

The most comprehensive study so far conducted, from over 30,000 patients in the Danish Cancer Registry, give support to the idea that statin use causes a reduction in mortality after prostate cancer. This work is presented at the 31st Annual EAU Congress in Munich.

A study on non-coding RNA (Ribonucleic Acid) from prostate cancer patients has identified a series of new prostate cancer markers which can be found in urine. Combining these RNA markers into a single test potentially opens the door for simple, accurate non-invasive testing for prostate cancer.

A new Europe-wide survey shows significant country-to-country differences in rates of kidney transplant donors. The survey shows for example within the EU, there is a x5 variation in the number of kidney donors per country (per head of population). This variation is probably due to different legal and social standards across Europe.

Prostate cancer is the most common male cancer, with 400,000 new cases every year in Europe. The success of surgery depends on a variety of factors.  Now a new study from scientists in Milan has shown that for local prostate cancers treated with radical prostatectomy, you can preoperatively predict the aggressiveness of the prostatic disease, via a simple blood test.

Recent studies have indicated that patients with sleep apnea may be associated with worse cancer outcomes. Now a new animal study, presented at the Annual Congress of the European Association of Urology in Munich, uncovers a possible mechanism which may underlie this link.

Men with fertility problems are at risk of metabolic diseases as they age, according to work being presented at the Annual Congress of the European Association of Urology in Munich*.

Around fifteen percent of all couples experience infertility, and in around half of these cases this is due to male infertility. Men with poor semen quality have been shown to have a decreased life expectancy, but the cause are unknown and no biochemical markers or prevention strategies have been developed. Now a group of Swedish researchers have measured the levels of sex hormones and other biochemical parameters in infertile men, and have shown that many of them are at risk of hypogonadism (low levels of sex hormones) as well as signs of metabolic disease and osteoporosis.

Madrid, 23 March 2015 – Initial results from the Göteborg randomised screening trial indicates that using MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) alongside conventional prostate cancer screening seems to offer improved cancer detection and can help avoid unnecessary biopsies.

Madrid, 23 March 2015 – Incontinence is a common side-effect in men after treatment for prostate cancer. Now a new study not only confirms the high rates of post-operation incontinence, but also for the first time details some of the significant economic costs facing men – on average €210 per year after surgery, in some cases rising to as much as €283 in the first year. This work is presented at the European Association of Urology conference in Madrid.